I heard a voice echoing around me

“Hey look, I think he’s waking up”

I stirred awake, with pain radiating through my whole body. I looked around and I saw 4 people standing beside me, Lillian and Bellion were standing near the window looking out and talking about something, Lindon was sat in a chair beside me and Telluric was standing near the door.

The decor was different from that of the rooms in the Greenfeather Manor, it was painted a slate grey colour, there was a small window with a pale white curtain and the bed that I lay in was unadorned, with a sky blue mattress and white duvet.

When a young woman with a blue suit and a name tag walked in and asked to check up on me I realised this must be a Hospital.

I had never been in a hospital before but i’d heard descriptions of what it was like from Lillian when we snuck out of the manor and nearly got injured, Lillian described it from her own experience when she had fallen from a tree a few years ago.

The woman looked at me and spoke

“Hello Rebel, I’m glad you’re finally awake.”

“I was getting worried.”

I smiled apologetically.

She smiled back at me politely

“Are you still feeling any pain?”

“Yes”

She wrote some notes on a piece of paper

She stopped writing and looked at Telluric

“How did you know that the treatment wouldn’t work?”

Telluric scoffed and rolled his eyes before responding

“Someone with a low tier nightmare isn’t strong enough to surpass his bodies natural defences, You would most likely need that old senile earthen bastard”

The lady wrinkled her nose

“Do you mean the ‘great’ Lord Whitefang?”

Telluric rolled his eyes again but didn’t respond.

She turned to me and smiled

“You are free to return home, but I would recommend getting lots of rest since you haven’t fully recovered yet”

Then she gave me a stern look

“And definitely no intense training for at least a few weeks”

***

After the most boring 2 weeks of my life i returned to training with Telluric.

I also continued to sneak off with Lillian and Lindon whenever I could, and they often came to watch me train with Telluric.

One day after i had finished my daily training, we were talking about Lindon’s upcoming birthday.

“When is your birthday Rebel”

“I’m not sure, to be honest”

“How do you not know your own birthday?”

“I don’t know, sorry”

“Come on, you have to know it”

“Leave him alone Lilly”

She frowned

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A memory flooded my brain, I was lay down on a bed wearing some kind of gown with someone standing next to me, I couldn’t quite make out their face.

I saw a sign on the wall.

“Congratulations Erantille”

I also saw a calendar with the first of march circled.

It must have been my mothers memory of after she had given birth to me. I still didn’t understand how this power worked.

“My birthday is the first of March”

“I thought you said you didn’t know”

“I only just remembered”

They didn’t press for further details.

With this new information it meant that i was going to turn nine in one months time.

Lindon stopped walking and i turned back to look at him, he had an exaggerated look of realisation on his face

“That means you’re older that me”

“I suppose it does.”

I said with a smirk

“It also means we have another birthday party to look forward to next month”

***

After we had dinner that night we all went to bed like we usually did, but for some reason Telluric woke me up in the middle of the night and made a proposition.

“I told you i would train you for six months, but after seeing how much progress you’ve made i believe that you would benefit from returning to Terramalorum with me”

I had heard about Terramalorum during my training, apparently it was where Telluric lived. Its even more scientifically advanced than even Sempiterne, the capital city.

“How long?”

“Hmm 3 years maybe?”

His response came out as a question, like he was uncertain how long, but then he added

“Yes definitely 3 years, you want to go to school with Lindon and Lillian don’t you?”

I pondered for a moment, 3 years is a long time to be away from my friends. If i want control over my poison it may be necessary though.

“I’ll go, but can we stay here a little longer? I need to be here for Lindons 9th birthday”

“Sure”

***

After Telluric’s interruption I tried to go back to sleep but i couldn’t, i was worrying about how i would tell Lindon and Lillian.

It took hours but i came up with the perfect plan.

At breakfast i told Lindon and Lillian to meet me at the front door after they had gotten ready.

When they asked me why, I told them it was a surprise.

I was waiting for thirty minutes before they arrived, without saying a word i followed the path that they had once showed me.

Once we reached the cliff edge i sat down, dangling my feet off, and told them to do the same. Lillian came and sat down to my left and Lindon sat to my right.

“I brought you two here to tell you something”

Lillian was quick to respond with a sarcastic

“No way!”

When i didn’t laugh at the joke she plastered her face with a more serious expression.

“Telluric and I will be going to Terramalorum, and i won’t be returning for quite a while”

I waited for a response but when neither of them said anything i continued.

“I will be leaving after Lindon’s ninth birthday”

“After my birthday, so you’re leaving in tw-, Do you see that!?”

We both looked at him questioningly.

“See what?”

“I saw something sparkling in the water down there”

I looked down at the purple river that flowed elegantly at the bottom of the cliff, I didn’t see any sparkling.

“It was probably just the sun reflecting off of the water”

“No, it wasn’t i swear”

Lindon got onto his feet and began descending the cliff by jumping down onto different levels of protruding rocks.

“Lillian your brother is a weirdo”

“I know”

We both got up and followed Lindon down the cliff, when we reached the bottom I saw that he was searching around the edge of the river looking for something.

“What are you looking for?”

“I’m trying to find whatever it was that was sparkling”

Lindon huffed in frustration because he couldn’t find what he was looking for.

“You guys stay here, iI’m going in the water to see if i can find it”

“Are you mad?”

Lindon and I both turned to Lillian, she usually didn’t shout at anyone so it was unexpected.

“Why would you go into the water, it’s probably infested with dangerous fish and stuff, and you don’t even know what it is that you’re looking for!”

She was right, i also thought It was a bit odd.

“Don’t worry Lilly, I have my ice. Remember?”

She turned around with a sigh of frustration and sat down

“Ice? What ice?”

Lindon grinned at me and in an instant a huge fist of ice emerged next to him, it picked him up and curled its fingers around him, then it dove into the water.

“I thought you and Lindon have lightning nightmares”

“We do, his is lightning and ice. The lightning is from Papa and the Ice is from Mamma”

“Oh, is yours lightning and ice too?”

“No, I only got lightning”

She looked sad, i didn’t know weather it was the topic we were talking about or if she was still thinking about Lindon, or even the news of my departure, maybe even a mix of all three.

We sat in silence for a while waiting for Lindon to return.

When the huge fist of ice came flying out of the water we both stood up and walked towards it.

The hand opened up and Lindon ran towards us.

“I found something down there, its like a huge cave system and it’s filled with gems and stuff, come on get in the hand”

Me and Lillian looked at each other

“Get in, hurry up”

We reluctantly stepped up to the hand and it picked us both up, another hand appeared next to the first and they intertwined together with us in the middle, sealing us in.

We lifted up into the air and plunged into the river, I looked around at all the fish.

There was big fish and small fish, they all had beautiful scales with incredible colours and patterns, one big fish was bright yellow and it had whisker like appendages on its face, they were shaped like a lightning bolt. I saw it swim up to a fish that was a similar size to itself and it sent out a shockwave that stunned the other fish, then it used the whiskers to cut it up.

The unique sights of this river were something to behold.

***

We reached the entrance into the cave after not too long, we plunged down into the tunnel.

The water from the river funnelled into a stream running through the cave.